As if disrupted trains weren’t enough, now we have Metro apostrophe crimes. (from Channel 10 news 25/6/2012: Commute derailed) Metro was already having a bad Monday morning peak with the inner part of the Sandringham line suspended due to a maintenance train derailing overnight. Things didn’t improve when at about 7:15 the outer section of ... [More]
Tag: public transport
There was speculation from some quarters that introducing 10 minute train frequencies would result in long traffic queues at level crossings, similar to those seen in many suburbs during peak commuting hours. I think this was unfounded. Looking around Bentleigh on a recent weekend, it seems no worse than when trains ran half as frequently. ... [More]
It used to be that on the weekends, trips by car could safely be assumed to be faster than those on public transport, particularly crosstown trips that required a change of service to complete. I’m not sure that’s always the case anymore. Over the weekend I took two crosstown train trips: Bentleigh to North Coburg ... [More]
I suppose trains need signals. And perhaps it’s another move to make Melbourne more European: this Cignall tobacconist in Queen Street is a Myki retailer. I’m not sure I have a strong opinion on this, but it does seem like an odd match, given smoking is banned on public transport vehicles, is also banned in ... [More]
A few years ago they fixed what was probably Melbourne’s most confusing bus route, but plenty of others are still running confusing, spaghetti-like routes around the suburbs. Often your trip from A to B travels via the rest of the alphabet. A PTUA report out today tries to measure how much buses meander, by comparing ... [More]
Sorry, I meant to post this ages ago. I went along to the official opening of Lynbrook station in April; there was a big turn out from the community, including local councillors and a couple of MPs, as well as media. And a sausage sizzle! I had an interesting talk to the architect, who said ... [More]
Some people seem to be a little paranoid about this: There is no requirement to provide a name and address to get a Myki card. You can buy a full fare Myki card from a vending machine. No details given, using cash or credit/debit/EFTPOS card to pay. You can buy a full fare or concession ... [More]
Seems the stuff in today’s Age to do with moving train driver changeovers out of Flinders Street is a bit controversial. I don’t particularly want to discuss it in the myriad of places I’ve seen people (mostly train drivers, I suspect) leave me comments about it, so I’ll do so here instead. From the article: ... [More]
The Herald Sun reports today that Metro punctuality figures have improved markedly in the last 12 months, including the figure on the Frankston line jumping from 68.4% to 87.1%. Certainly this is due to some changes in the way the trains are run. The question is, are these changes good, or bad? Good: Departing platform ... [More]
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Myki cards can (sometimes) be shared
With little fanfare, there was a change last year to the ticketing rules that appear to allow Myki cards to be shared, so that for instance you can keep one at home to lend to visitors from interstate or overseas, or a company office can keep one handy to lend to employees who don’t use ... [More]
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay, talking about deployment of Protective Service Officers on stations: “From time to time they will check tickets. When these PSOs see a group of young people that they believe are up to no good on a railway station a really helpful tool is to say, ‘Show me your ticket’. ... [More]
My cousin Justin’s move to Melbourne gives me an opportunity to see the public transport network from the perspective of a brand new user. He’s pretty well travelled, having spent extensive time in Europe recently, mostly based in London, but with plenty of travel to other cities. So he’s used PT systems in many other ... [More]